Hodge says men's four has electric potential (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Hodge says men's four has electric potential

12:08pm Thursday 12th April 2012 in Sport By Sportsdesk

Hebden’s Andy Hodge is predicting big things from Great Britain’s men’s four at the 2012 Olympics.

In fact, Hodge, who has moved over as expected from the men’s pair, says that the new-look quartet are so “astonishingly” fast that they could turn up on the day of the Olympic final with no preparation and still challenge for a gold medal.

And with four months of unbroken training and racing ahead of them, Hodge believes there will not be a crew in the world to match Britain’s flagship boat.

It was confirmed last week that Hodge and Pete Reed will move from the pair back to the men’s four and defend their 2008 Olympic title alongside Alex Gregory and either Tom James or Alex Partridge.

The final make-up of the crew will be announced before the opening World Cup regatta of the season in Belgrade, which starts on May 4.

“Our Beijing boat was only together for six weeks in total,” Hodge said.

“We had very little time together, just because of illness and injury, (and still won gold),” Hodge said.

“I just think about how fast this boat can go with no training together. During seat racing, it went astonishingly fast.

“I mean everyone was like, ‘Oh my God’. That’s what’s so exciting.

“Part of me thinks we can get together on the day and we will be a formidable force. Give us a couple of weeks, we can be electric.

“If we can have a clean run from here, I’ll be damn-ed if anyone is going to beat us or come close. It’s a very exciting project.”

Jurgen Grobler’s decision to move Hodge and Reed from the pair meant breaking up the men’s four crew that won gold for Britain at the 2011 World Championships. But the motivation was to maximise Britain’s chances of Olympic gold – and strengthening the men’s four has had the knock-on effect of also strengthening the eight.

Ric Egington and Matthew Langridge have moved boats and they will be joined by either James, an Olympic champion, or Partridge, a world champion.

The eight also features Constantine Louloudis, an Oxford undergraduate who will stroke the boat and is 20 years younger than his comeback crew-mate Greg Searle, a 1992 Olympic champion.

“We have the strongest team ever,” said Grobler, who has guided the British men’s four to gold at the last three Olympic Games.

“We have the strongest team ever,” said Grobler, who has guided the British men’s four to gold at the last three Olympic Games.

Although this squad is for the first of the three World Cup regattas, GB Rowing performance director David Tanner confirmed it will be the basis for Olympic selection, with ten of the 14 crews from last year’s World Championships changing.

Marcus Bateman and Bradford’s Matt Wells move into contention for the quad.